North America

MEMPHIS (Tennessee, US), March 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Two men were killed and five other people were wounded in a shooting outside a restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee, police said.

Police said two people were arrested Thursday after the shooting that authorities said began with an altercation inside Privé restaurant and nightclub.

Preliminary information provided by police showed one man was found dead at the location of Wednesday night’s shooting and another man died at a hospital.

March 31 (Reuters) - An immense spring storm emerging from the Western U.S. was expected to form a 1,000-mile (1609 km) front of extreme weather from the Great Lakes to Texas on Friday, spawning blizzards, freezing rain, tornadoes and torrential showers, forecasters said.

Widespread, severe thunderstorms were forecast for Friday afternoon into early Saturday across portions of the middle Mississippi Valley and eastward to the lower Ohio and Tennessee valleys, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

The chance of tornadoes posed the most noteworthy threat.

WASHINGTON, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. President Donald Trump was indicted on Thursday for his role in an alleged hush-money payment to an adult film actress.

Multiple news media outlets, including The New York Times, ABC News, and The Washington Post, broke the news of Trump's indictment by a Manhattan grand jury in the evening, quoting people familiar with the situation.

A statement from Trump lawyers Joe Tacopina and Susan Necheles confirmed that the former president was indicted.

UNITED NATIONS, March 30 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Thursday called on the international community to support Africa's leading role in its own peace and security in a high-level open debate of the Security Council on the impact of development policy on the implementation of Africa's Silencing the Guns initiative.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The majority-white and Republican-led Mississippi Legislature is taking final steps to expand the the territory of a state-run police department inside the capital city of Jackson, which is majority-Black and governed by Democrats.

Critics say the proposal would stomp on local self-governance and create unequal systems of justice in different parts Jackson, which has the highest percentage of Black residents of any major U.S. city.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Thursday approved a sprawling energy package that seeks to undo virtually all of President Joe Biden’s agenda to address climate change.

The legislation would sharply increase domestic production of oil, natural gas and coal, and ease permitting restrictions that delay pipelines, refineries and other projects. It would boost production of critical minerals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt that are used in electric vehicles, computers, cellphones and other products.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — As Taiwan’s diplomatic partners dwindle and turn instead to rival China, Taiwanese President President Tsai Ing-wen is aiming to shore up ties with the self-governing island’s remaining allies during a trip this week to Central America.

In a speech addressed to leaders of Guatemala and Belize shortly before departing, Tsai framed the trip as a chance to show Taiwan’s commitment to democratic values globally.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A powerful San Diego County supervisor said he will resign amid accusations that he sexually assaulted a government employee, completing a swift and shocking fall for a decorated Marine combat veteran whose star rose with his Democratic Party’s ascendancy in the nation’s eighth-largest city.

Nathan Fletcher, who defected from the Republican Party in 2012, was elected to a second term on the county board of supervisors with 65% of the vote in November, two years after Democrats won a board majority that eluded their grasp for decades.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Meteorologists are urging people in parts of the Midwest and southern U.S. to be ready Friday for dangerous weather including tornadoes, saying the conditions are similar to those a week ago that unleashed a devastating twister that killed at least 21 people in Mississippi.

An outbreak of severe thunderstorms has the potential to cause hail, damaging wind gusts and tornadoes that could be strong and move on the ground over long distances, according to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Authorities released 911 recordings on Thursday that capture the terror inside a Nashville elementary school during a mass shooting this week, as callers pleaded for help in hushed voices while sirens, crying and gunfire could be heard in the background.